Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

My Book Deal Moment by Hazel Osmond

When I imagined what it would be like to be offered a book deal, it involved leaping up and down and the sound of champagne corks popping.

I actually celebrated it in A&E.

It all started well. My agent Broo Doherty had been trying to find a publisher for ‘Who’s Afraid of Mr Wolfe?’ for just under a year, so when she rang to say, ‘Charlotte at Quercus really loves the story and she’d like to offer you a contract for two books’, I don’t think the reality hit me until I’d finished the call. Then there was leaping up and down and some not altogether attractive air punching.

We arranged to go out and celebrate.

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author – Watch Your Characters

By Anna Bell

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the critique that changed my life, where the person critiquing disliked my characters due to certain actions and lines of dialogue. Just how careful do we have to be when writing a character and how do we know if we’ve made them likable or unlikable? 

This is a difficult theme to write about as you only need to look at how people behave in real life to see that people have different reactions to situations, tolerate more or less, and find different things attractive. After all, one woman’s prince is another’s frog. How does this impact on our fictional characters? We’re obviously not going to be able to please everyone, but perhaps we should take a closer look at how our characters behave.

Ten Books...featuring Animals

One of the best things about writing these posts – once I've thought of a theme (and it is often based on what is currently happening in my own life) – is the huge amount of books brought to my attention. I often end up buying many of those I've listed. This week I'm inspired by my new ten week old puppy currently lying at my feet as I write. I'm infatuated with her so couldn't help but wonder, are there any women's fiction books out there with animals? Yes! There are. As well as many childhood favourites (too many to list here). 

1. Falling for Clooney by Catherine Alliott – It's chick lit for hens! As a chicken owner myself I just had to include this. A story just for chickens from Catherine Alliott. Brilliant. You can see the trailer here.

2. A Pug's Tale by Alison Pace – Whenever Hope needs a pick me up she makes her way to Pug Hill in Central Park. A place where pugs and their owners convene. (Although sadly Hope isn't actually an owner of a pug herself.) 

3. Trust Me, I'm a Vet by Cathy Woodman – After finding out the hard way that love and work does not go together, Maz jumps at the chance to run a vetinary practice in Devon for six months. But she soon finds out the escape from London is a lot trickier than she anticipated...

4. Pictures of Lily by Paige Toon – Lily's teenage life is completely changed when her mum decides to live in Australia. She begins to work at the conservation park, where she meets her first love but alas, is left heartbroken. Ten years later, Lily is happy. And her current boyfriend has just proposed. But what about the one that got away?

Write Your Novel – Editing (Part Four)

This is the final post in our series on editing. Part one, part two and part three are all available if you missed them first time around.

So, onto business. It's time for stage four, the final polish.

As you might imagine, this means reading through your manuscript again. If you've just completed stage three (close editing), the prospect of reading your book again is probably about as appealing as an appendectomy, but you're still going to have to do it. Sorry.

Yes, there is a spell check on your computer (and you should go ahead and use that first), but there is no substitute for your own intelligence and attention for making your text shine. Plus, spell check won't differentiate between 'harp' and 'herpes' and you really don't want to get those two mixed up...

Review – One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern

Reviewed by Victoria Sutton

I love the touch of fairy tale in Cecelia Ahern’s Novels. When I first read PS I Love You I enjoyed it so much that when I saw it in French I had to have it – an excuse to read it again under the pretence of practising my French! I was a few years older than Cecelia was when she wrote it and I thought that her insight was incredible. Each of her novels brings something new that inspires and leaves me with something to think about, so I couldn’t wait to see what One Hundred Names had to offer…

Kitty Logan is a journalist who has spent the last few years caught up in the struggle to make it to the big time. So much so that she might just have forgotten what journalism meant to her in the first place. Luckily she has her closest friend and mentor Constance to help her see the error of her ways but not before she has landed herself in some serious trouble with the TV network she is working for, not to mention ruining an innocent man’s life…

Five of the Best...Washi Tapes

If you're a crafty sort you'll already have heard of washi tape. If not, think of the texture and strength of masking tape and then add adorable colours and patterns. Washi tape is beloved by scrapbookers as you can write on it, use it to stick photographs and ephemera, and even move it around. It's brilliant for stationery addicts for exactly the same reasons. Use it to make labels for your file folders and notebooks, to highlight important dates in your diary or to prettify your 'to do' list. You can also use it like ribbon when wrapping gifts or making cards. The range of designs available is truly astonishing. Here's a small selection to whet your appetite...

1. Secret Garden paper tape. This set features muted colours and an assortment of designs including illustrations of butterlies and insects and lace. The set of eight paper tapes costs £8 from Paperchase.

2. These remind me a bit of Eric Carle picture books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There are two rolls of tape in the pack, each is 15mm wide and 10m long. £5 per pack from Washi Tapes.

My Book Deal Moment by Taylor Jenkins Reid

In the Spring on 2012, I had finished writing my novel, Forever, Interrupted, and I had queried and signed with an agent, but I knew the hard part was just beginning. I had to wait to see if it sold.

My agent sent me the list of the editors she was targeting. For weeks, I refreshed my inbox hoping for news – praying for good news. Instead, I got no news and bad news. Weeks of hearing nothing at all were interrupted only by the occasional update that an editor had passed.

One day at work, I got an email that someone else had passed. I took my lunch break early because the disappointment was almost too much bear. I pulled over in my car, onto a side street, and cried onto my steering wheel. I thought to myself, “It’s never going to happen. It isn’t in the cards for me.”

And then, days later, suddenly it was. I had an email from my agent saying an editor at Atria/Simon & Schuster was interested.

The thing they don’t tell you about book deals, the part they leave out even though it is perhaps the most dramatic and excruciating, is that it doesn’t all happen at once. Sometimes, you find out on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend that an editor at Simon & Schuster wants to talk to you next week. And you spend the entire weekend unable to move, staring at the ceiling, daydreaming of the possibilities of what is to come, terrified you’ve gotten your hopes up for nothing at all.

Friday Book Giveaway! The Reunion by Amy Silver

In this weeks comp we've got a copy of The Reunion by Amy Silver to give away.

They thought they'd be friends forever.

Jen, Andrew, Lilah, Natalie and Dan were inseparable at university, but in the seventeen years since they left they have hardly seen each other. Until Jen invites them all to stay at her house in the French Alps. The house where they once spent a golden summer before tragedy tore them apart.

Review – Deep Blue Sea by Tasmina Perry

Reviewed by Kirsty Nicole Pole

Every time I read a Tasmina Perry book I feel like I am transported into the world of the uber glamorous, that is rife with scandal and intrigue. I also know that I’m going to be entertained.

To outsiders looking in, Diana and Julian have the perfect life. With gorgeously expensive properties in London and the country, and enough money to live a more than comfortable life, they seem to have it made. But when Julian suddenly dies in suspicious circumstances, Diana can’t stop thinking that things just don’t seem right and so she makes the phone call that she never wanted to make – to her sister Rachel. Rachel is an ex-tabloid reporter who lost her career to the phone hacking scandal, but now Diana needs her more than ever if they are to uncover the truth about what really happened to Julian.

This book is like a scandalous murder mystery, as with Tasmina’s other books she always manages to combine a sleek plot with intriguing characters and some gripping twists and turns. I loved the characters in this book, they were well written and had many sides to them. Rachel’s skills as a reporter, which she has tried to squash down by her new role as a driving instructor, lead them further down the rabbit warren that is Julian’s life, and before they know it the questions that she asks throw another twist into the story that you aren’t expecting.

Review – The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman

Reviewed by Debs Carr

This debut novel is the story of two sisters, Alice and Natalie Kessler, and the deep secrets one has held from the other for generations. It moves in time from 1963, when the sisters are staying at their parents’ holiday home by a lake, meet Thomas Beyber a young artist, and each girl forms a relationship with him. It then goes to 2007, when the artist, now in his seventies and in poor health, summons an old friend and archivist of his works, Professor Finch, a recently widowed art historian and Stephen Jameson, a young, disgraced art authenticator. Thomas shows them a painting of the two sisters and himself, and Stephen realising that it’s part of a triptych is delighted to be sent to discover the other two parts of this valuable piece. However the sisters moved away from their family home decades ago and there doesn’t seem to be any trace of them at all.

Stephen and the older Professor Finch, one not driving and the other hating planes, have to find a way to find the women. They then need to discover firstly, what happened to the girls now women in their fifties, and secondly, if Alice and Natalie have any idea what happened to the missing parts of the triptych, and if they do, will the men be able to persuade the sisters to reveal the whereabouts of the paintings?

Suzy Cox’s Top Five Writing Tips

Suzy Cox is the Deputy Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and author of The Dead Girls Detective Agency. Here are her top five writing tips.

1. If you get to a section where you’re stuck, just keep going. If you try to make every sentence Pulitzer-perfect as you go along, you’ll never finish the thing. You can re-draft, re-write and describe the flowers on your characters’ wallpaper later.

2. Enlist three good friends. One to brainstorm with, another to read chapters blind, and a third who has NO interest in your novel whatsoever to take you to the pub, get you drunk and take your mind off (in my case) dead teenagers.

3. Know your characters inside out. What they wear, where they shop, the worst track on their iPod, and what they secretly do when no one’s watching. 

4. Sometimes you produce your best work when you really didn’t think you were in the mood. Just turn on your laptop and get to it!

5. Back everything up. Twice. It saves a lot of tears and swearing. Oh, and beware Wikipedia – it’s a time sponge. Evil YouTube too. In fact, just switch the internet off.

Review – The Son-In-Law by Charity Norman

Reviewed by Cesca Major

Sitting on an East Coast train to Edinburgh surreptitiously trying to wipe the tears away, and failing. I have just closed the final pages of Charity Norman's latest book The Son-in-Law and am a mess. An excellent tag line to begin with had my interest piqued – can you forgive the unforgivable? The story put simply was this: Joseph Scott has just got out of prison for killing his wife. His three children don't want to see him again, his parents-in-law will do anything to protect them. So starts this gripping read.

The novel was a clever mix of the same events from different perspectives. Joseph, our anti-hero is a sympathetic character and we are rightly curious about the kind of 'man behind the murderer' label. His parents-in-law Hannah and Freddie are polar opposites. Hannah, who struggles to show affection, was a terrifying prospect for any son-in-law and was rightly struggling to move on from the death of her daughter. Freddie was the most delicious character – a man fascinated by the small details, touched by the commonplace, warm spirited, an absolute gentleman. The changes that his character undergo are profoundly moving and I loved this strand of the book. Joseph's dealings with his children - Scarlet, Theo and Ben are realistically drawn. Four year old Ben in particular is a lovely addition to the novel. A boy who has only known his grandmother as mother-figure has some wonderful moments of dialogue. It's heart-in-the-mouth stuff.

Novelicious Chats To...Alison Jameson

Alison Jameson's latest book, Little Beauty, was published recently and today she's answered a few questions for us.

Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?

On an ideal day and usually during the summer months I get up very early--5am, make a pot of tea, put on some music and get to work. On the perfect day I'm finished by 8/9am and ready to have breakfast with my son. I love the early morning quiet when everyone else is asleep but it means I have to be in bed early and there are mornings when my son has decided to join me! (he's just 4); but he will be starting school this September so I be getting him ready and then settling down to work until lunchtime.

When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?

I love the writer Annie Dillard and have found lots of her commentary about writing very inspiring. Her book, The Writing Life is one I return to regularly. My mother is a great story-teller and being from the West of Ireland she has lot of unusual expressions and a great sense of humour. She was a great inspiration when writing Little Beauty which is set on the West coast.

Review – Taking Chances by Molly McAdams

Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce

Harper hasn’t had the most conventional of upbringings, raised solely by her marine father, who is distant and has always made it quite clear he wishes Harper wasn’t there. Now eighteen, Harper is leaving behind her secluded life to start a new life at college. She hits it off with roommate, Bree immediately and through her meets Brandon and Chase, two housemates Harper finds herself falling in love with. Brandon and Chase feel the same way about Harper and she must choose between the pair, but even when she does end up with Brandon, she can’t stop thinking about Chase.

Taking Chances started off as a reasonable read. Although I admit I didn’t really ‘get’ the sudden and incredibly intense attraction the two guys feel for Harper, but it was a decent enough love-triangle based story. However, I became increasingly frustrated as Harper yo-yoed back and forth between Brandon and Chase, never able to make up her mind and stick to it as she was apparently so deeply in love with both. Meanwhile, the guys take on the reasonable stance of waiting around while Harper scuttles between them. Yes, they growled at each other and had the odd scuffle and even sulked but not once did they seem fed up with Harper’s behaviour and take themselves out of the equation. They seemed so reasonable about the whole situation and that was the biggest problem with the book for me.